Taking care of parting lines?

[dk17hmr]

I have a 358429, there are some parting lines on the bullet, I dont like it. Is there away to fix the mold so it doesnt to that?

[lunicy]

1st make sure there isn't lead or other crap holding the mold open slightly. Other than that, I'm at a loss.

[docone31]

I think, with casting, you are going to get parting lines no matter what.
If they are large enough, they make wings. Those come off easily. If they are small, I do not worry about it.
Is the casting egg shaped, or elongated? Is the mold out of round, or just a sloppy mate together?
I use 20$ Lee Molds, I get parting lines, they shoot better than my jacketed loads.
I just figuire they are a part of casting.

[longbow]

If you are referring to flashing then likely there is something keeping the mould from closing. As lunicy says, could be lead or crud build up. If not it might be an alignment pin sticking out a bit to far or the receiving hole damaged. I have seen all of this.

Hold it up to a bright light. If you can see between the closed mould halfs something is wrong ~ warped, peened, lead or crud. Most can be pretty easily fixed.

Have you miked the boolits? Are they round or oval?

Longbow

[GSM]

Check for burrs on the alignment pin holes also. These can be knocked off with a few VERY light passes (less is more) of a fine file.

[Calamity Jake]

Having parting lines is something you will have to live with. Controling there size is explaned above.

[dk17hmr]

Ill have to look at the mold again and see whats going on. Ill report back.

[e15cap]

If you put the two halves together, minus the handles, try twisting them against each other. If there is movement, the pins are not out far enough and will cause some of this problem. Then check for burrs. I use a sharp wrap on the side of the mold when they are together to set the mold the same every time. Best, Roger

[deltaenterprizes]

If you don't like parting lines , try swaging.

[vanilla_gorilla]

I often get a glop of lead in between the two halves of the mould, below the cavity. When cool, a knife will quickly fix that without damaging the face of the mould, and keep me from getting fins on my boolits.

[TimBoothe]

I'm having the same problems with a Lee TL-452-230-TC 6-banger. I've got maybe 200 or so rounds cast through it. I can hold it up to a light and see the gap easily. I've checked for lead or anything else that might be holding the halves apart, notta. I also tried to take some wet/dry super fine grit sanding paper and sanded the little "male" stubs on each half that go into the holes to hold the mold together. One thing that I did notice, the little "female" holes that are made out of something besides aluminum and are inserted into a hole drilled in the mold. The end of my mold that is having problems closing up, this little female insert thing was sticking out further than the one on the end that is closing up just fine. On the good end, the insert is flush and on the bad end it protrudes up above the face of the mold just a bit. I tried to file this down very carefully to make it flush. This did help some. But since mine happens to be a new mold, I'm just gonna send her back to Lee.

TimBoothe

[TimBoothe]

Not meaing to hi-jack this thread, but is the general consensus that these parting lines and little wings can be trimmed off and the bullet work just fine?

TimBoothe

[JSnover]

If the boolits are the right size and shape, yes. But sometimes it can take a little finesse to slice them off without gouging the boolit.

[docone31]

All mine have some sort of parting line. The wings I scrape off with my fingernail. If they do not want to come off, I toss them in the pot again.
I have shot some with substantial parting lines.
Hit what I was aiming at.

[Hurricane]

If the two mould haves fit together tightly when they are not in the handles, maybe it is the handles fault. With the mould in the handles, look carefully to see if a very small gap is between the moulds. It will look like a thin line of light between the mould haves. If so, try the same thing with another set of handles. Another handle may fit better. This happened to me not long ago. My spare pair of handles solved the problem.